Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 45

For the music leader. According to “The Lilies.” Of the Korahites. A maskil.^[a] A love song.

Psalm 47

For the music leader. A psalm of the Korahites.

Psalm 48

A song. A psalm of the Korahites.

Abigail saves David

25 Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered to mourn for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. David then left and went down to the Maon wilderness.^[a]

² There was a man in Maon who did business in Carmel. He was a very important man and owned three thousand sheep and one thousand goats. At that time, he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³ The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and attractive woman, but her husband was a hard man who did evil things. He was a Calebite.

⁴ While in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David sent ten servants, telling them, “Go up to Carmel. When you get to Nabal, greet him for me. ⁶ Say this to him: ‘Peace to you,^[b] your household, and all that is yours! ⁷ I’ve heard that you are now shearing sheep. As you know, your shepherds were with us in the wilderness.^[c] We didn’t mistreat them. Moreover, the whole time they were at Carmel, nothing of theirs went missing. ⁸ Ask your servants; they will tell you the same. So please receive these young men favorably, because we’ve come on a special day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

⁹ When David’s young men arrived, they said all this to Nabal on David’s behalf. Then they waited. ¹⁰ But Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is Jesse’s son? There are all sorts of slaves running away from their masters these days. ¹¹ Why should I take my bread, my water, and the meat I’ve butchered for my shearers and give it to people who came here from who knows where?” ¹² So David’s young servants turned around and went back the way they came. When they arrived, they reported every word of this to David.

¹³ Then David said to his soldiers, “All of you, strap on your swords!” So each of them strapped on their swords, and David did the same. Nearly four hundred men went up with David. Two hundred men remained back with the supplies.

¹⁴ One of Nabal’s servants told his wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he just yelled at them. ¹⁵ But the men were very good to us and didn’t mistreat us. Nothing of ours went missing the whole time we were out with them in the fields. ¹⁶ In fact, the whole time we were with them, watching our sheep, they were a protective wall around us both night and day. ¹⁷ Think about that and see what you can do, because trouble is coming for our master and his whole household. But he’s such a despicable person no one can speak to him.”

¹⁸ Abigail quickly took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep ready for cooking, five seahs^[d] of roasted grain, one hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes. She loaded all this on donkeys ¹⁹ and told her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I’ll be right behind you.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal.

²⁰ As she was riding her donkey, going down a trail on the hillside, David and his soldiers appeared, descending toward her, and she met up with them. ²¹ David had just been saying, “What a waste of time—guarding all this man’s stuff in the wilderness so that nothing of his went missing! He has repaid me evil instead of good! ²² May God deal harshly with me, David,^[e] and worse still if I leave alive even one single one who urinates on a wall^[f] belonging to him come morning!”

Paul and Barnabas in Iconium

14 The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas entered the Jewish synagogue and spoke as they had before. As a result, a huge number of Jews and Greeks believed. ² However, the Jews who rejected the faith stirred up the Gentiles, poisoning their minds against the brothers. ³ Nevertheless, Paul and Barnabas stayed there for quite some time, confidently speaking about the Lord. And the Lord confirmed the word about his grace by the signs and wonders he enabled them to perform. ⁴ The people of the city were divided—some siding with the Jews, others with the Lord’s messengers. ⁵ Then some Gentiles and Jews, including their leaders, hatched a plot to mistreat and stone Paul and Barnabas. ⁶ When they learned of it, these two messengers fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding area, ⁷ where they continued to proclaim the good news.

Healing a crippled man in Lystra

⁸ In Lystra there was a certain man who lacked strength in his legs. He had been crippled since birth and had never walked. Sitting there, he ⁹ heard Paul speaking. Paul stared at him and saw that he believed he could be healed.

¹⁰ Raising his voice, Paul said, “Stand up straight on your feet!” He jumped up and began to walk.

¹¹ Seeing what Paul had done, the crowd shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have taken human form and come down to visit us!” ¹² They referred to Barnabas as Zeus and to Paul as Hermes, since Paul was the main speaker. ¹³ The priest of Zeus, whose temple was located just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates. Along with the crowds, he wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

¹⁴ When the Lord’s messengers Barnabas and Paul found out about this, they tore their clothes in protest and rushed out into the crowd. They shouted, ¹⁵ “People, what are you doing? We are humans too, just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you: turn to the living God and away from such worthless things. He made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.^{[a] 16} In the past, he permitted every nation to go its own way. ¹⁷ Nevertheless, he hasn’t left himself without a witness. He has blessed you by giving you rain from above as well as seasonal harvests, and satisfying you with food and happiness.” ¹⁸ Even with these words, they barely kept the crowds from sacrificing to them.

Parables about lamps and measures

²¹ Jesus said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp in order to put it under a basket or a bed? Shouldn’t it be placed on a lampstand? ²² Everything hidden will be revealed, and everything secret will come out into the open. ²³ Whoever has ears to listen should pay attention!”

²⁴ He said to them, “Listen carefully! God will evaluate you with the same standard you use to evaluate others. Indeed, you will receive even more. ²⁵ Those who have will receive more, but as for those who don’t have, even what they don’t have will be taken away from them.”

More parables about God’s kingdom

²⁶ Then Jesus said, “This is what God’s kingdom is like. It’s as though someone scatters seed on the ground, ²⁷ then sleeps and wakes night and day. The seed sprouts and grows, but the farmer doesn’t know how. ²⁸ The earth produces crops all by itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full head of grain. ²⁹ Whenever the crop is ready, the farmer goes out to cut the grain because it’s harvesttime.”

³⁰ He continued, “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? What parable can I use to explain it? ³¹ Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; ³² but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.”

³³ With many such parables he continued to give them the word, as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ He spoke to them only in parables, then explained everything to his disciples when he was alone with them.